


A Good Man

by Vamillepudding



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 20:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16604981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vamillepudding/pseuds/Vamillepudding
Summary: Eddie Brock is not a good guy. This fairly simple statement is so deeply ingrained in his brain that he can practically see it with his eyes closed. Venom, however, has other ideas.





	A Good Man

Eddie Brock is not a good guy.

This fairly simple statement is so deeply ingrained in his brain that he can practically see it with his eyes closed. It never leaves him. Like an old friend, it accompanies him from the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to sleep, and sometimes even beyond that.

It doesn’t even bother him anymore, not really. He’s learned to live with it, like one learns to live with just about anything. But sometimes it just sneaks up on him – it can be the middle of the day, he can be just walking down a street, or getting his helmet on, or doing the dishes, and suddenly, there it is:

A memory, a random one, of one of the countless times he’s fucked up. And it will be like a bucket of ice cold water has just been emptied over his head, only it’s a bucket no one except him can see – and yet, it always feels like everyone in his vicinity immediately spots his (metaphorically speaking) drenched clothes, and judges him for it.

It’s fine. Eddie is fine.

And then comes Venom.

Venom is – something else, and it’s not just because they are an alien symbiote who now lives in Eddie’s body and occasionally bites people’s heads off. They are there, in Eddie’s head, always. Even when they’re not currently talking, Eddie can still _feel_ them.

He’d expected it to drive him nuts, but so far, it’s almost been…nice. He keeps waiting for something to go wrong, for them to be caught by the police, maybe, or for a more personal crisis, like getting fired from his new job because he screwed up again, or Anne and Dan just not returning his calls one day because they figuredout how pathetic he is, or (and this one he is almost too embarrassed to admit) Venom leaving.

They are walking home one night when it happens, for the first time since Eddie and Venom became a We: Eddie passes Mrs Chen’s shop and is just about to go inside to pick up some last-minute groceries before the store closes, when he sees Mrs Chen through the window minding the register, and suddenly he just _can’t_ , he can’t move, he can’t walk in there, can’t face the woman he witnessed get robbed more than once without doing anything, without stepping in, without even calling the cops, without-

 **We did step in, Eddie. We ate the bad guy**.

And isn’t that just the exact fucking problem?

“No, we didn’t” he hisses. “ _You_ ate the bad guy. _You_ stepped in.”

**Not a Me. Just a We.**

“Vee, you can’t seriously believe that.” Eddie has stopped whispering; some random guy is giving him a weird look. He couldn’t care less right now. “You have access to my memories, right?”

 **Right** the symbiote says after a small hesitation.

“Well then, why don’t you just have a look and then get back to me.” He thinks back to the first time the asshole pointed a gun at Mrs Chen, and he just hid behind the shelves and did nothing. There was a second time, and a third, and a fourth, and a-

 **Stop**.

“Why? Can’t handle losing the argument? Can’t handle that your host is a complete failure?”

He is sensing some discomfort from Venom now, but he’s too angry to identify the source of the feeling.

 **Eddie** Venom starts. But the moment of self-loathing has passed (at least the intensity of it; and it’s really only taken a few steps to the side, ready to spring on him again any second), so Eddie snaps “not now” and enters Mrs Chen’s shop after all.

The shop owner greets him by name before he even said hello, and she does it without looking up from her newspaper. Eddie can’t help but wonder if he’s simply the only one who comes in this late at night, or if his little fight with Venom could be seen through the windows. God, he hopes it’s the first. Mrs Chen already thinks he’s a screw up, he doesn’t need to add to that.

When he gets home later that night, he realises Venom hasn’t said anything in a while. The symbiote appears to be sulking. Or maybe it’s already reconsidering this whole relationship (symbiosis, Eddie corrects himself, it’s a _symbiosis_ ), already looking for better options.

Just the thought makes him sick to the stomach. It’s scary how quickly he has become dependent on Venom – then again, Venom is the only thing about him that’s good, that gets shit done, that helps people. And you know your life is truly messed up when “the only good thing” about it is an alien who eats people.

He doesn’t know what he’d do if Venom actually left.

His solution for Anne leaving was to fall into a slump for six months. But he and Venom are already closer than he has ever been with Anne, Eddie thinks as he’s heating up a frozen pizza in the microwave, because his oven has recently started making weird noises he doesn’t like to think about.

Actually, now that the thought has crossed his mind: Why _wouldn’t_ Venom go? In fact, it’s a surprise they are still here at all. Maybe they’re just waiting until someone else comes along, someone better.

 **No**.

The voice is loud enough to make Eddie drop the glass he’s holding; it falls to the floor and shatters.

“Jesus” he mutters as he starts picking up the glass with his bare hands because he doesn’t even kind of know where his brush is. One cuts into his skin; Venom immediately heals it. “Thanks, buddy.”

 **Stop thinking bad thoughts**.

“What?” The microwave beeps. He opens it only to discover that the pizza is still half-frozen. He doubts that’s going to get better, so he takes it out anyway and starts looking for cutlery. There is one clean fork left in the drawer and no knives at all, so he takes one (still dirty) from the sink and sits down on the couch.

 **You’re thinking bad thoughts. We don’t like it. Stop**.

“I’m not – you’re thinking bad thoughts” he says, because somewhere along the line he transformed into a 12-year-old kid. Venom snorts; a weird sensation. Kinda ticklish.

 **You need to work on your comebacks**.

“Yeah” Eddie replies absently. There are olives on his pizza, something he didn’t realise until now. He hates olives, so he starts picking them off one by one. There are a _lot_.

 **We’re not going to leave you. We thought we established that.** Venom says, and it’s so sudden that Eddie almost drops his plate, too, because he wasn’t expecting this.

Well. Since olives are apparently the only topping, he might as well stop bothering and finally face this conversation they were bound to have eventually.

“Vee, I know you think I’m like – the perfect host or some shit.”

 **You are. Perfect symbiosis**.

“There must be other suitable hosts though” Eddie insists, and Venom’s silence tells him he’s right. “Right. So – look, all I’m saying is, there is a reason Anne left me, you know?”

 **Yes. You were selfish and didn’t respect her privacy**.

Eddie winces at that, but doesn’t allow himself to be steered off course. “Pretty much. But also, I’m just genuinely _bad_ at relationships, alright? I can barely keep it together on a good day, I can’t handle another person too.”

 **We are one**.

“Yeah well, that’s really nice, but. Look. If you find another host, can you just tell me first? That’s all I’m asking, really. A little heads up would be great, so I can-“ What? Buy some tissues in advance? “Adjust” he finishes lamely.

 **We are done now**.

And that – what? Okay. This is fine, he tells himself. He didn’t expect it to be so soon, but he did bring it up, so he shouldn’t really be surprised.

 **Eddie. Shut up**.

Eddie shuts up, because now, something really weird is happening. It feels like Venom is trying to do something, like plug some strings on a guitar, only the guitar is inside him, what the hell, is Venom properly eating his liver or something?

Then he sees them.

Memories, like the ones he showed Venom earlier, like the ones he always plays when he’s panicking. Only those memories aren’t of bad events, aren’t of situations in which he screwed up.

Giving Maria 20 bucks. Surprising Anne with a spontaneous trip on the motorcycle. Tutoring Anne’s cousin-nephew-whatever in English Lit. Remembering Mrs Chen’s birthday she mentioned once.

Not all of them are his. Some are Maria’s, and some are Anne’s, too, presumably from the time they were Venom’s temporary hosts. They all have an equally warm feeling to them, like sunlight shining on your face.

 **You are good, Eddie. There is no better host. We wanted to show you this. You’re good.** Eddie suddenly has to swallow since his throat feels really tight, when Venom adds: **But together we are better**.

“Yeah” Eddie says after what feels like forever. “I guess we are.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear what you thought !


End file.
